On the Road Again
How the National Performance Network addresses the needs of touring artists
By Eliza Bent
The NPN-supported Ameriville, by the ensemble Universes (pictured from left, Steven Sapp, William Ruiz, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and Gamal Abdel Chasten), appeared in the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky. Photos by Sado Khali
Challenge
There are many plights to being a regional theatre artist. First off: You're probably poor. Second: You're likely isolated from fellow artists and collaborators in other parts of the country. Third: Even when you have the chance to tour your show, you probably don't make much money—you may actually lose a little, because with the cachet of touring comes a cost. Plus, there's that tricky power relationship you must navigate with presenters—perhaps you've felt the need to "sell" your art or grovel for a touring opportunity.
These issues form the backbone from which the National Performance Network sprouted. NPN (not to be confused with the National New Play Network, or NNPN, featured in the inaugural Jan. '08 "Strategies") is a network of artist-focused organizations that strives to ensure that touring artists thrive and are paid a fair wage. Says NPN's president and CEO, MK Wegmann, "We like to say that our members are the presenting organizations, but our constituents are the artists." Essentially, NPN serves artists via its member presenters—kind of like the transitive property in math.
Plan
The 25-year-old organization, which originally operated under the aegis of Dance Theater Workshop, became an independent 501(c)(3) in 1998 and two years later moved its base to New Orleans. NPN's hallmark program is a fixed-fee contract, which is given to touring artists. "That contract includes a weekly salary, fringe or health benefits, per diems, lodging, transportation and administrative overhead paid to the artists' own company," explains Wegmann. Artists often end up on the losing side of the touring equation, Wegmann maintains, and to address this inequity, NPN covers 42 percent of the fixed-fee total, while the presenter covers the other 58 percent plus presenting costs.
Additionally, NPN operates a co-commissioning fund. "The Creation Fund," Wegmann notes, "currently supports about 25 new works each year." Two commissioning organizations must be in different cities at least 100 miles apart (to ensure a tour), and each commissioner grants a $2,000 fee to the artist. NPN matches this total with $6,000 so the commissioning fee grows to $10,000. "But," adds Wegmann excitedly, "there can be more than just two co-commissioners."
Once the commission has been made, the artist has three years to work on it. NPN subsidizes the eventual tour of the new piece, with a supplementary Freight Fund available to defray unusual shipping or production costs. There's even an escape clause, in keeping with NPNs artist-first mentality: If the new work isn't deemed to be ready, the parties involved may agree to present an earlier work by the same artist.
What Worked
NPN's annual meeting provides an occasion for presenters to meet artists in a less harried atmosphere than a booking conference. "The annual meeting is about building relationships between artists and presenters," declares Wegmann, who observes that the power relationship between artists and presenters in the mainstream touring world is all too often not an equal one. "We try to bring artists and presenters together in such a way that artists don't feel that they have to sell themselves or their art." To that end, NPN schedules a number of shows during its annual meeting so presenters can see the work for themselves. "The meeting is especially important for artists working in more isolated parts of the U.S.," avows Wegmann. "We support 120 weeks of touring a year," she estimates.
NPN prides itself on reinforcing local decision-making on the part of its members. "We curate the presenters; they curate the artists," specifies Wegmann. But this doesn't mean that NPN's scope is limited to domestic art-making and touring. NPN's Performing Americas Program invites presenters from the U.S. to Latin America and vice versa, so that each group of presenters can cull international artists that may be invited to tour. Additionally, operating within Performing Americas is the Creative Exchange, which grants 10 individual artists three-to-five-week residencies in either Latin America or the U.S. "We use the same fixed-fee contract model in these cases—plus we deal with visa issues," notes Wegmann.
What Didn't
There is, of course, a potential danger in continually drawing on the same pool of artists—presenting organizations could tend to select the same artists year after year, thus limiting NPN's scope. Wegmann counters this argument by pointing out that "last year about 40 percent of the artists who toured were totally new to NPN." She also cites the diversity of NPN's sprawling network: "Our members are really committed to cultural equity and social justice," she boasts—the headline-making artists known since 1990 as the "NEA Four" have all toured through NPN. "Our members are really willing to take risks on the work they present."
It is no surprise that few on NPN's roster identify themselves as regional theaÂtres. Still, Wegmann believes regional institutions are increasingly embracing touring artists—Kentucky's Actors Theatre of Louisville, for example, presented Ameriville by Universes in 2009 as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays. "It's harder for regional theatres to produce full seasons, so they're starting to consider touring shows, hybrid works and ensemble/devised pieces."
One program that Wegmann laments didn't secure ongoing funding was a mentorship initiative—"not dissimilar to TCG's New Generations grant," she says, in its pairing of a mentee with a leader in the field. "It was perceived as expensive. The budget was $500,000 for five organizations and six individuals. We were subsidizing salaries at a living wage as opposed to internship rates."
What's Next
Wegmann is enthusiastic about the Forth Fund, initially developed through NPN's Creation Fund, a pilot program that will provide extra time, space and expertise to in-development works. "We recognize that receiving a commission and then getting a touring opportunity still leaves some space in the middle," says Wegmann. "In the presenting world there is a sense that a lot of work has been rushed to the stage, so the Forth Fund addresses that by matching presenter resources with the needs of the artists." The hope is that the quality of touring work will not only be stronger, but that artists will also deepen relationships with their commissioners.
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